


Ten Years On

by chaletian



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-25
Updated: 2010-05-25
Packaged: 2017-10-09 17:24:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaletian/pseuds/chaletian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary tries to forget everything, but she knows what's coming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Years On

**Author's Note:**

> Written following the ep _In the Beginning_.

Two years on, and the memories are still fresh. She can go days – even a week – without thinking about it, but then she’ll be driving to the store or turn a corner, and suddenly her father’s flashing eyes at her that aren’t his, and she feels the damp ground against her thigh from below, and the dead weight of John’s body from above, and she makes her choice. She sees the signs in newspapers and in gossip in their local diner, and she ignores them. She will be normal.

Four years on, and the memories are still there, but she’s better at pushing them away. She can go weeks without thinking about it. She and John have been married a while now; are used to each other. She can tell when he comes home if he’s had a bad day, when tension wears lines along the sides of his mouth, and he swipes a tired hand through his hair. She kisses him and soothes him, and only sometimes does that bring to mind the feel of him, dead, under her hand. She bakes pie and makes friends. She’s going to be normal.

Six years on, and the memories are faded, like old wallpaper covered by new. She’s tired – they’re both tired – and quick to irritate, but she wouldn’t change the cause for anything. Sometimes she and John stand over Dean’s cradle (named for her mother; her mind shies away from the memory of her father, as it does from the stranger with the same name who cried and looked so disappointed at her), and she is filled with happiness. Her husband, her child, her normal life: they are all she has ever wanted. How many people can say that. She is happy. She is normal.

Eight years on, and she’s kept busy. Dean’s into everything, but she and John are pretty sure he’s the best kid ever. He’s bright and friendly and so beautiful and when she looks at her husband and her son, she feels like her heart might explode from how much she loves them. It’s not perfect. She and John argue sometimes, and Dean has a knack for getting into the very things he shouldn’t. She plays with her son, and keeps house, and visits her friends. She doesn’t even consider whether she’s normal or not.

Ten years on, and she’s waiting. She had another son, on 2 May 1983, and she remembered the stranger with the same name as her son and what he told her. Ten years on, and she remembers her father and how he died. She remembers going home and finding her mother. She remembers John, dead in her arms, and she remembers him alive. She remembers the signs and the portents. She remembers the stranger, and she thinks she knows, now, who he was, because her son looks at her with the same eyes every day.

Ten years on, and she’s waiting, awake, in her bed. She hears the noise in the nursery. She remembers what the stranger – what _Dean_ \- told her. And she gets up. And she goes to the nursery. She can’t pretend any more. She can’t pretend she’s normal.

THE END


End file.
